DeSantis, Christie don’t rule out sending troops to free American hostages taken by Hamas
Neither Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis nor former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie would rule out sending US troops to the Middle East to free American hostages held by Hamas Wednesday night.
“How far would you go as President to secure the release of those eight American hostages and would it include sending American forces into combat?” DeSantis was asked.
“We have to look out for our people when they’re hostages,” the 45-year-old governor said. “As commander in chief, you have to do whatever you can to get that done.”
DeSantis went on to assert that Israel has a “right to eliminate Hamas,” and while the US “should not try to direct their war effort,” Washington “should work together” with the Israeli government.
Christie lit into DeSantis following his answer.
“This is the problem with the first three debates. Ron gets asked a question and he doesn’t answer,” Christie said.
In stark contrast to the Florida governor, Christe pledged to “absolutely” use American forces to free US citizens kidnapped by Hamas.
“If they had a plan which showed me that we could get them out safely, you’re damn right I’d send the American army in there to get our people home and get them home now,” he added.
Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy called Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on the Jewish state “medieval,” “subhuman” and “immoral” but argued that it wasn’t a direct attack on the US and doesn’t warrant American intervention.
“To say that that was an attack on America fails a basic test,” Ramaswamy said, arguing that the country would be better served sending troops to the US-Mexico border to stem the flow of migrants.
“I’ll tell [Benjamin Netanyahu], ‘You smoke the terrorists on your southern border – you go ahead and we’re rooting for you – we’re gonna smoke the terrorists on our own southern border,’” he added.
DeSantis countered Ramaswamy by noting that US citizens were killed in the Oct. 7 attack.
“If you look at this terrorist attack in the number of Americans, this would be one of the top-10 terrorist attacks in American history,” he said. “So our own people were killed in that attack. And I think it’s absolutely appropriate to point that out and to say that we’re in this together and we are going to work with Israel so that these people are brought to justice.”
“I agree with that,” Ramaswamy responded.
